Shopping

Souvenir Sunday at Orlando International Airport

March 9, 2014Harriet BaskasShopping, Souvenir Sunday, SouvenirsHello Kitt, Orlando International Airport

Orlando International Airport is full of special treats for shoppers who, like me, are always on the lookout for inexpensive, somewhat offbeat, small treasures.

In addition to the treats from the airport’s Kennedy Space Center Gift Shop I featured yesterday on Snack Saturday, during my recent visit at MCO I found these two Hello Kitty items in the Sanrio store.

The orange Hello Kitty key chain fulfills the “something-related-to-a-trip-to-Florida” category and the tissues are just cute and useful.

And, of course, any time spent at Orlando International Airport offers a chance to look around at the airport’s eclectic art collection, which includes work by Jacob Lawrence and this “double-take” sculpture called “The Traveler” by Duane Hanson.

Snack Saturday at Orlando Int’l Airport

March 8, 2014Harriet BaskasShopping, Snack Saturday, SouvenirsAirport shopping, Kennedy Space Center, Orlando Int'l Airport

Is it a theme park, a mall, a hotel lobby or an airport?

Who cares?

If you’ve got a few hours to wait for a flight, Orlando International Airport is great place to do it.

Especially when it is Snack Saturday and you’re on the look-out for a few food-related souvenirs.

I found these salt & pepper shakers and Gummi Space Shuttles at the airport’s Kennedy Space Center gift shop.

New airport amenity: “At your service” carts

March 5, 2014Harriet BaskasShoppingairport amenities

If you travel through John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, you may have already seen the smaller, pushcart version of this mobile ‘At Your Service’ cart from Paradies, the company that operates shops at more than 70 airports and hotels in the US and Canada.

The company is, literally, getting ready to roll these carts out – and into – hold areas at airports.

Stocked with snacks, drinks, magazines, neck pillows, earbuds and other best-selling items from the shops, the carts bring last-minute and nice-to-have necessities to “gate huggers” who might not take the time to wander into shops.

The first full-blown “At Your Service” cart will appear at Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport this week and, soon, in an airport near you.

Find Happiness and Nirvana at airports

February 26, 2014Harriet BaskasArt, ShoppingAirport art, Nirvana, record stores, Sub Pop, travel

Here’s how to find Happiness and Nirvana at U.S. airports:

At Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Happiness, a site-specific project by Jamie Pawlus looks just like the signs we’re used to seeing at airports and other public venues.

Sub Pop Mega Mart handbill – courtesy EMP museum

And soon travelers will be able to find Nirvana — as well as Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Band of Horses — and recordings from other bands in the Sub Pop indie-rock catalog at a store opening in April at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“For many people, the airport serves as a first and last impression of a city,” said Megan Jasper, vice president at Sub Pop. “Sub Pop hopes to add to the quality of that experience by proudly representing the city’s love for music and its culture.”

Founded in 1988, the Seattle-based Sub Pop vaulted grunge rock to international fame and the label is to Seattle what Motown was to Detroit and Sun Records was to Memphis.

“Seattle music has become part of the cultural identity of the city and is as rooted in our ‘brand’ as Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks coffee,” said Charles R. Cross, author of the forthcoming book “Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain.” “Sub Pop is a big part of that, and even though not every local band is on Sub Pop, their name, more than any other, evokes Seattle music to many people.”

The roots in Northwest culture “fit well into Sea-Tac airport’s retail offerings, [which] feature a unique combination of local and national brands,” airport spokeswoman Christina Faine said in an email. “Locally there is a following for Sub Pop, with its quintessentially quirky Northwest merchandise.”

Faine said live performances outside the Sub Pop store will complement the airport’s existing music program, which includes short concerts, music videos and recorded greetings by local musicians.

The store will sell T-shirts and posters celebrating the region’s cultural history, as well as CDs and vinyl records.

“You can get Starbucks and Seattle’s Best coffees almost everywhere, but there are only a few places left where you can find rare Sub Pop vinyl,” Cross said. “Now our airport is one of them.”

The job posting for manager at the Sub Pop airport shop makes it clear that music is a priority: “Knowledge of the Sub Pop catalog, Pacific Northwest music, the Seattle music community and the city of Seattle” is required, it stated.

In addition to the Sub Pop store, Metsker Maps, a popular Seattle shop selling maps, globes, travel guides and geography-themed books and gifts, will open a branch Sea-Tac in May.

It’s a different story 160 miles south, where Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX) will lose two of its three branches of the iconic indie bookstore Powell’s City of Books, whose flagship in downtown Portland fills an entire block.

“The airport is rethinking the retail on the concourses and likely responding to the changing patterns of travelers who want to get past security quickly,” said Powell’s Books CEO Miriam Sontz. “But leases that were coming due later this year are not being renewed, and the option offered of extending these leases to Dec. 31 doesn’t work for our business.”

The airport is asking tenants with expiring contracts to join other interested businesses in submitting proposals for future operations.

“The proposals would be part of a program in its early stages that would redevelop airport concessions as we continue to improve the passenger experience at PDX,” said Port of Portland airport spokesman

Powell’s two post-security branches will close June 30, but its pre-security store, which opened in 1988 and offers games, toys and gifts along with new and used books, will remain. The airport store also buys used books.

“We’re very sad—this was not a choice we wanted,” Sontz said. “I may be the CEO, but I’m also a traveler. And I think this will affect people’s ability to have that last chance to grab a bit of reading before a long flight.”

(My story about the Sub Pop shop at Sea-Tac Airport and Powell’s Books at Portland International Airport first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior in a slightly different version.)

Pop-up shops popping up at airports

February 19, 2014Harriet BaskasShoppingairport retail, Airport shopping, pop-up shops

Denver International Airport _RT70 -new kiosk selling local ski-resort related items.

Route 70 Resort Wear kiosk at Denver International Airport

They’ve worked well in malls and on upscale shopping streets. Now pop-up retail shops and restaurants are becoming more common in airports.

For London’s Heathrow Airport, pop-ups offer the ability to provide “seasonality and variety to passengers and the opportunity to test new concepts and brands,” said Hazel Catterall, Heathrow’s head of fashion.

In addition to frozen yogurt in the summer, artisan chocolate at Easter, flip-flops and sandals during the summer and specialty gifts in the spring, “we introduce relevant popups to match the travel theme such as ‘BBC Doctor Who’ products during the program anniversary to coincide with the summer holidays,” said Iona Harper, Heathrow’s experience delivery manager.

Copenhagen Airport has hosted pop-up restaurants, where top Danish chefs took turns serving special tasting menus from an open kitchen. And every few months a different company creates a pop-up in the “Brand Box” in the airport’s main tax-free shop. Right now outdoor clothing and gear company, Yeti, is in the CPH brand box with a special fitting room offering customers a place to try on down jackets at icy cold winter temperatures.

Copenhagen Airport_Yeti Pop-Up Shop allows travelers to try on clothes in cold temperatures. Courtesy CPH Airport

Copenhagen Airport – Yeti Pop-Up shop allows travelers to try on clothes in the cold.

Airports in the United States are hopping on the pop-up bandwagon as well.

In October 2013, JetBlue hosted a three-day Farmers Market in T5 at JFK International Airport. “That was such a successful pop-up experience that we’re now looking at how we can integrate it more on a regular basis,” said JetBlue spokeswoman Tamara Young.

During this past holiday season, Hickory Farms tested the idea of a Holiday Market shop at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In the Delta Terminal of LaGuardia Airport in New York, the eco-friendly lifestyle and fashion website Zady set up a pop-up shop selling jewelry, accessories, handbags, clothing and home goods.

“From a business standpoint, it’s a great idea,” said Ramon Lo, editorial director of Airport Revenue News. “Short-term leases can give vendors a chance to dip their toes into the airport arena and build awareness for street-side locations,” while allowing airports to vet new operators and, often, fill unused spaces, he said.

This past January, when San Francisco International Airport reopened United’s renovated Terminal 3, Boarding Area E, two spaces for pop-up shops with year-long leases were included alongside new restaurants and retailers that will be there much longer.

“We wanted to provide new, small business owners an opportunity to operate at SFO without the cost of an expensive build out,” said airport spokesman Doug Yakel. “If the shops are successful, they can propose on another space at the airport in the future. If they are not successful, at least they don’t have huge bills to pay going forward.”

For the next year, the work of local and regional artists will be on view at SFO in the Collector pop-up, while organic olive oil, skin care products and other items will be sold at the pop-up shop operated by Marin County-based McEvoy Ranch.

While the shop has been open less than a month, “we’re experiencing fast-paced growth,” said McEvoy Ranch co-proprietor Nion McEvoy. “With upwards of 20 new flights slated to be added by the airline in March, we’re confident that sales will continue to increase.”

Temporary retail stores selling Broncos and Seahawks memorabilia did very well this year at Denver and Seattle International airports, as did the Hudson News pop-up shops at Newark Liberty International Airport during Super Bowl week.

It can often take some negotiation with airports to secure the space for pop-ups, “but airports are motivated and sometimes ask for these pop-ups because they of course share in the benefit of the sales,” said Hudson Group spokeswoman Laura Samuels.

Increased sales for an existing tenant – and the desire to help out local lovebirds – is why Austin Bergstrom International Airport makes room in the bag claim around Valentine’s Day for Amy’s Ice Creams to set up a low-tech pop-up shop (a cloth-covered table with a cash box, chairs and a cooler) selling chocolate truffles and pink egg cartons filled with chocolate-covered strawberries.

AustinBergstrom Airport_Amys IceCreams Valentine's Day pop-up in bag claim_Courtesy Sandy L. Stevens, Austin-Bergstrom

Courtesy Sandy L. Stevens – Austin-Bergstrom Int’l Airport

“The airport doesn’t charge extra for this or other any pop-up,” said airports spokesman Jason Zielinski. “We receive a set percentage of total sales for all concession operations, so an increase in sales generated by pop-ups also produces an increase in revenue for the airport.”

At Denver International Airport, a Retail Merchandising Unit (RMU) cart and kiosk program in place since September 2011 offers 38 spots that often function as pop-ups.

The program offers entrepreneurs and small business owners agreements that last from three months to a year and most go to Denver or Colorado-based concepts that have featured everything from solar-powered accessories and emergency supplies to jewelry, vitamins and handmade candy and chocolates.

“Some stay on and get new agreements, but usually a third if not half will turn over on an annual basis,” said Deborah Kravitz, owner of program operator Provenzano Resources.

Route 70 Resort Wear, which sells branded T-shirts and sweatshirts from Denver-area ski resorts along Route 70 for at least six months, is the newest kiosk to open at Denver International Airport. And any day now, Pink Slip, a shop selling boutique and brand-name boxers and T-shirts for men and tights, stockings and other “basics” for women, will open for five months at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B, in the space formerly occupied by Brookstone.

“This will help us get a read on if this is something travelers want without us having to go into the investment of a longer term lease,” said shop co-owner and airport concessions consultant Ellery Plowman of Elleco. And because Pink Slip is renting the space in the gap between two long-term tenants, the airport gets a bit of extra revenue “and passengers see something new, unique and cool” instead of an empty space, said Plowman.

One company eyeing JFK, Heathrow and other hub airports as possible pop-up venues is Vancouver-based Indochino, an on-line custom clothing company for men that has a Traveling Tailor program.

“We had great success at our event in Grand Central Station with the kind of men who appreciate the convenience of a 30-minute appointment that results in a custom wardrobe,” said Kyle Vucko, Indochino co-founder and CEO. “And an airport pop-up store could resonate in the same way.”

The Indochino Pop-Up Store: Grand Central Station, New York City.

Indochino Pop-Up store at Grand Central Station, NYC

(My story about airport pop-up shops first appeared on USA TODAY in my February 2014 ‘At the Airport’ column.)

Souvenir Sunday: 2013 recap

December 29, 2013Harriet BaskasShopping, Souvenir Sunday, SouvenirsAirport shopping, gift

Souvenir shopping is one way to spend the time when you’re stuck at the airport. Especially if you can find gifts that are inexpensive, a bit offbeat and “of” the city or state you’re in.

Here are some of the souvenirs we’ve featured on Stuck at The Airport this year in our Souvenir Sunday feature:

At Louisville International Airport, we found grass; Kentucky Certified Bluegrass

At Salt Lake City International Airport, we spotted snowflakes made of salt from the Great Salt Lake:

At Vermont’s Burlington International Airport we found a flat penny machine:

And at Idaho’s Boise Airport, we learned that these Spud Buddies all but fly off the shelves.

Don’t forget: if you’re stuck at the airport and find a fun, inexpensive and somewhat offbeat souvenir that has a link to the local town or region, please snap a photo and send it along to us here at StuckatTheAirport.com.

If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, you’ll get a fun travel-related souvenir.

In-flight social gifting – the next big thing?

December 21, 2013Harriet BaskasShoppingIn-flight social gifting, KLM, Southwest Airlines, Virgin America

In a move to make flying a bit more friendly—and to raise revenues—airlines are bringing social media-style giving to the skies.

This week Southwest Airlines introduced a Facebook option that enables people to pool funds to buy a Southwest gift card for a friend or family member.

“It allows a group to come together to give a gift as a thank you or as congratulations for a wedding, a birthday or a major life milestone,” said Southwest spokesman Dan Landson.

In April, Virgin America introduced an in-flight, seat-to-seat drink and snack delivery program that Virgin Group founder Richard Branson described as a way passengers might increase their chances of “deplaning with a plus one.”

And earlier this month social media-savvy KLM introduced an option that expands on the Dutch airline popular program of surprising its passengers with personalized gifts.

The new KLM Wannagives lets people prepurchase gifts—from chocolate and perfume to jewelry or a Delft Blue singing, floating egg-timer—that are delivered by crew members to a passenger during a flight.

“The strength of Wannagives lies not in the fact that we give something extra to our customers, but that we enable people to give each other something special,” KLM’s social business manager Lonneke Verbiezen wrote in a blog post introducing the program.

It’s also a way for the airline and other companies to increase retail sales.

“There’s always a commercial component to these efforts, as there should be. This is business,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Hudson Crossing.

“Airlines are becoming much more entrepreneurial and innovative when it comes to securing additional revenues from passengers, be it via preordering duty free or investing in digital platforms for on-board retail,” said Raymond Kollau of Airlinetrends.com. “KLM’s Wannagives is a good example of airlines’ newly found retailing mind-set.”

Items made available as Wannagives are drawn from KLM’s current online shop, with a few products added. Since the program’s Dec. 9 rollout, Champagne with a crystal glass and Godiva chocolates are the most ordered items, said KLM spokesman Koen van Zijl.

“We think the service is a win-win for both our passengers and for the company,” van Zijl said. “We were asked often if it is possible to surprise a passenger on board, and Wannagives now makes this happen. And sure, we aim to increase in-flight sales.”

Looking forward to 2014, industry experts expect the social gifting trend to continue.

“In the digital world we live in, everyone craves more personal connection,” said Brian Erke, CEO and co-founder of social gifting site Gratafy. “This new adventure in simple yet personal gifting offers a sense of camaraderie and the ability to be there for someone, even when you can’t actually be there.”(M

(My story about in-flight social gifting first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior)

Heathrow’s personal shoppers goose sales

December 18, 2013Harriet BaskasShoppingAirport shopping, Heathrow, Personal Shoppers

Some people plan long layovers in large international airports so they can do holiday shopping in high-end, duty-free shops at a leisurely pace.

Others end up doing mad, last-minute gift-grabs at airport newsstands between flights.

London’s Heathrow Airport, with annual net sales of over $2.3 billion, believes both types of traveler can benefit from the services of a personal shopper. It offers such a service free, with no minimum spending requirement.

Travelers may request a personal shopper when they arrive at the airport, or book one in advance and send details about items of interest, preferences, the time they have on the ground, favorite brands and a shopping budget.

“By the time you arrive at Heathrow, your personal shopper will have pulled out suitable products and set them aside for you,” said the airport’s retail director, Muriel Zingraff-Shariff. “They’ll then escort you to each store and make new suggestions in line with your feedback.”

Since October, when the personal shopping program was expanded to everyone from a VIP-only service, hundreds have used it to buy everything from “a sandwich lunch to a gold and diamond watch” from the airport’s 300-plus retail outlets, Zingraff-Shariff said.

Arranging for items to be sent from a store in one terminal to a shopper in another is no problem, according to personal shopper Violetta Koltay. “But sometimes our biggest challenge is reminding passengers they have a plane to catch,” she said.

With more than 5.8 million passengers expected to pass through Heathrow this Christmas season, the services of the personal shoppers are even more in demand.

Koltay and other shoppers say passengers are seeking iconic U.K. products such as English tea, Scottish salmon and single malt whisky, as well as items made popular by the Royal Wedding, the Olympics and the birth of Prince George.

“The desirability of British brands has never been higher,” said Heathrow personal shopper Dana Jaber, “Visitors are keen to take home a little piece of the U.K. for their own Christmas celebrations.”

Heathrow’s personal shoppers have also noticed other trends among international travelers:

English tea sold at the airport over Christmas is popular with Chinese passengers as a gift item.
Turkish and Japanese passengers are key buyers of Scottish malt whisky “and are keen to understand the heritage of each bottle they purchase to take home.”
Middle Eastern passengers are enlisting the assistance of personal shoppers to buy Scottish salmon, which is packaged and sealed for flight.

While a convenient amenity, personal shoppers no doubt contribute to an airport’s bottom line. According to a Heathrow spokesperson, while the average transaction value there is about $62 (£38), transactions rise to an average of about $1,625 (£1,000) when a personal shopper is used.

According to Airports Council International (ACI), revenue generated from retail rentals made up 27 percent of nonaeronautical income for airports worldwide in 2011—7.5 percent more than in 2010. (The ACI report tallying 2012 figures will be published in March 2014.)

“Retail has become a major source of revenue for airports,” said Raymond Kollau founder of Airlinetrends.com. “In fact, with the decline of sales via traditional retail stores at high streets and shopping malls, many consumer and luxury brands … are looking to open stores at airports, as this travel retail is still seeing a healthy increase each year.”

One problem is that many international passengers face a language barrier when shopping at an airport, Kallou said.

“Research found that having a knowledgeable personal shopping proactively approaching them to assist in a more educated and quicker purchase is very much appreciated.”

Kollau said that Frankfurt Airport was the first airport to introduce a personal shopper service for Chinese passengers at the end of 2012, followed by a similar service for Russian passengers this past October.

Heathrow’s personal shoppers speak a total of 11 languages, including Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

“I can imagine that Aéroports de Paris, operator of Charles de Gaulle Airport, which is the major gateway for Asian travelers to Europe, is keeping a close eye on how the service is being received at Frankfurt and London Heathrow airports, and will likely introduce a similar service soon,” said Kollau.

(My story about Personal Shoppers at Heathrow Airport first appeared on CNBC Road Warrior)

In-flight gifting: would you do it?

December 16, 2013Harriet BaskasShoppingKLM, seat-to-seat delivery, Virgin American, Wannagives

Perhaps you remember this video featuring Sir Richard Branson introducing Virgin America’s “Seat to Seat Delivery” service allowing passengers to send a drink, a meal or a snack to another passenger using the seat-back ordering system.

In order to send another Virgin America passenger a gift, you need to be on the same plane.

But not on KLM, which has a “WannaGives” program that allows people on the ground to pre-purchase gifts for passengers who will be flying on a KLM flight.

The gift-wrapped present can be purchased for cash or miles and will be hand-delivered by the crew during the flight.

For a bit more cash or miles, the airline will also deliver the gift to someone’s home.

KLM’s suggested list of in-flight gifts is quite varied and includes everything from a small bottle of fancy champagne with a crystal glass to preferred seating, perfume, wallets, jewelry, a kid’s pilot set and this adorable Delftblue singing floating egg timer which plays a different traditional Dutch tune depending on whether the egg is soft-boiled or hard.

CheapAir.com & other travel companies accepting bitcoin

November 21, 2013Harriet BaskasAir Travel, ShoppingBitcoin, currency, gift cards, travel

Bit by bit, fans of bitcoin—the virtual currency currently experiencing wild fluctuations in value—are finding ways to use the digital dollars for travel.

On Thursday, November 21, on-line travel agency CheapAir.com announced it would accept bitcoin as payment for flights booked on its website. Soon the company plans to accept bitcoin for hotel reservations and flights via its app as well.

Scroll through the Bitcoin.Travel website or Facebook page and you’ll find an eclectic listing of other real-world cafes, transportation companies, hostels and tour companies around the world advertising the fact they’re willing to accept bitcoin payments.

Among those is New Jersey-based A Class Limousine, which provides sedans, limousines, vans and shuttle buses for airport and point-to-point travel in its region.

The company has been accepting bitcoin payments since January “because it is cheap, quick, and virtually risk free,” said accounts manager Aaron Williams, “and because it helps us grow our client base.”

The benefit to travelers, said Williams, is that bitcoin is now an internationally accepted currency “so there is no currency to exchange before getting in your car or credit card forex fees. The long and the short of it is that people spend it and we want them to spend it on our services.”

In and around Santa Cruz, Calif., travelers are welcome to use bitcoin to pay for airport shuttles, wine tours and other services (even weddings) offered by Santa Cruz Experience or one of the other companies operated by Norcal Transportation Corporation.

Company CEO Austin Twohig said he added the bitcoin payment option in part because the fees charged to merchants are lower than those charged for credit cards and because there are no worries about charge-backs.

So far, though, he’s had no takers. And even though he’s been watching the value of bitcoin fluctuating wildly, “if someone called today and wanted to pay with bitcoin, I would not hesitate at all.”

Mike LaGrotta, CEO and co-founder of New York- and London-based Techno Tourist travel company is also a big fan, mostly because bitcoin helps avoid bank or credit card fees that can hover around 10 percent for clients sending payment from places such as North Africa and Eastern Europe.

“In terms of speed of payment and accessibility for people to use it to pay us, it’s just easier in every single way imaginable,” he said.

“It’s just a no-brainer for us to offer customers this option.”

Road warriors have another option for turning bitcoin into travel: gift cards.

Among the more than 150 brands of gift cards available through online gift card company, eGifter are cards from American Airlines, BedandBreakfast.com, Carnival and Celebrity cruise lines, Hyatt and Marriott hotels and the Global Hotel Card from Orbitz. Gift cards for meals, gasoline and other consumable travel items are also offered.

“One of the advantages to accepting bitcoin is that it has attracted a whole new market of early adopters,” said eGifter CEO Tyler Roye. “There aren’t a lot of places to spend bitcoins now and we provide a whole bunch of options in one move.”

The company has been accepting bitcoin since August through Coinbase, a company that creates a digital wallet for users and a secure way for merchants to get their cash at service charge rates below what most credit card companies charge.

“They accept the bitcoin and convert them to cash so that we never have to touch the bitcoin or figure out what to do with them,” said Roye.

The pass-through shields the company from market fluctuations and other risks associated with taking bitcoin.

“It’s just a no-brainer for us to offer customers this option,” said Roye.

(My story about using bitcoin for travel first appeared on the CNBC Road Warrior)